PARIS, June 19, 1787.
DEAR SIR--I have received your favor of April the 23d, from New York,
and am sorry to find you have had a relapse. Time and temperance,
however, will cure you; to which add exercise. I hope you have long ago
had a happy meeting with your friends, with whom a few hours would be
to me an ineffable feast. The face of Europe appears a little turbid,
but all will subside. The Empress endeavored to bully the Turk, who
laughed at her, and she is going back. The Emperor's reformations have
occasioned the appearance of insurrection in Flanders, and he,
according to character, will probably tread back his steps. A change of
system here, with respect to the Dutch, is suspected; because the Kings
of Prussia and England openly espouse the cause of the Stadtholder, and
that of the Patriots is likely to fall. The American acquaintances whom
you left here, not being stationary, you will hardly expect news of
them. Mrs. Barrett, lately dead, was, I think, known to you. I had a
letter from Ledyard lately, dated at St. Petersburg. He had but two
shirts, and yet more shirts than shillings. Still he was determined to
obtain the palm of being the first circumambulator of the earth. He
says, that having no money, they kick him from place to place, and thus
he expects to be kicked round the globe. Are you become a great walker?
You know I preach up that kind of exercise. Shall I send you a
_conte-pas_? It will cost you a dozen louis, but be a great stimulus to
walking, as it will record your steps. I finished my tour a week or ten
days ago. I went as far as Turin, Milan, Genoa; and never passed three
months and a half more delightfully. I returned through the canal of
Languedoc, by Bordeaux, Nantes, L'Orient, and Rennes; then returned to
Nantes and came up the Loire to Orleans. I was alone through the whole,
and think one travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects
more.
Present me in the most friendly terms to Mrs. Bannister, and to your
father, and be assured of the sincere esteem of, dear Sir, your friend
and servant.